IBM PDM Fastpath™ - the Fastpath to PDM Leadership…

By Brad Cabibi, Fastpath™ Offering Development Project Manager and James Malicki, PDM Asset Development Manager

Summary…

In an effort to assist companies that are struggling to assess their product data management (PDM) capabilities and to create PDM plans to address their future business needs, IBM has created the PDM Fastpath offering. The offering provides a structured approach to explore PDM related business issues, evaluate client PDM capabilities and create a PDM roadmap in an extremely expeditious manner. IBM and its business partners bring their expertise in the PDM domain along with a consultative problem solving methodology to help small and medium size enterprises address their product data management challenges. The ultimate goal of Fastpath is to enable clients to gain control of their PDM domain by analyzing their product lifecycle data management environment, developing a realistic plan to address deficiencies and to execute a resolving plan.

History…

The PDM Fastpath is a recent offering that has been developed as the latest in a suite of assessment and diagnostic solutions from IBM's Integrated Industrial Solutions Business Development organization, formerly known as the IBM Virtual Product Innovation (VPI) group. The Fastpath offering is an offspring of two assessments:

1. Virtual Product Innovation Assessment (introduced in 1998 timeframe)
   
2. PDM Assessment (released early 2002)

The VPI Assessment was developed as a full-function, consulting methodology that examines ten key best practices in the Virtual Product Innovation (VPI) domain. The results of a VPI Assessment are an in-depth analysis of a client's VPI practices, recommendations for next steps, and follow-on roadmap activities as deemed appropriate to support a company's PLM business initiatives. The VPI Assessment is widely recognized as an excellent solution, but one requiring a level of planning and face time between IBM and the client resources that are not always easily obtained in a small or medium company.

As the VPI Assessment matured, IBM received multiple requests for more detailed diagnostic tools that apply the same methodologies as the VPI Assessment yet in a narrower and deeper span of execution. Specifically a new diagnostic tool for analyzing the product data management domain was requested; the result was the creation and release of the PDM Assessment. The PDM Assessment was targeted for deployment at a number of large enterprise customers. The successful deployment of this assessment has been demonstrated as IBM has guided a handful of their customers through tactical and strategic execution plans to gain PDM leadership. But the PDM Assessment shares the characteristic challenges of its VPI heritage - mainly the planning, time and resource requirements for a successful application are poorly aligned with a small and medium business client.

As the VPI and PDM Assessments primarily continue their successful deployment with IBM's large enterprise clients, requests for a more streamline diagnostic solution surfaced. The requirements were to create a diagnostic that leveraged the VPI Assessment methodology yet would take much less time and resources to execute to ensure alignment with the small and medium business environment. The result of those requests is PDM Fastpath.

What is the Fastpath?

The PDM Fastpath is a consultative methodology designed to identify focal points for developing PDM solutions utilizing the client's priorities and business strategies.

The Fastpath offering provides a(n):

• consultative workshop that can be conducted with three or more individuals to build a consensus view of a company's product data management business requirements
  
• gap map of a company's current business initiatives to PDM domain solution capabilities
  
• approach to identify a potential solution which will enable an enhanced PDM environment

Specifically, the Fastpath should be deployed when a company is attempting to formulate business initiatives that address how to:

• consolidate product data, documents and related information to support the product lifecycle
  
• increase the effectiveness of the through-life change management processes
  
• improve the management of product definition structures for material selection, design in context and BOM material classification
  
• share product and management information with other business processes and systems
  
• enhance enterprise wide collaboration to more easily exchange product information internally with colleagues and externally with customers and suppliers

Deliverables include a(n):

• summary of the Fastpath Workshop results (e.g. analysis plots and priority of findings)
  
• presentation report consisting of the workshop outputs, a gap analysis discussion and recommendations
  
• executive level presentation & review meeting to communicate analysis findings and recommendations for a PLM/PDM move forward plan

How does the PDM Fastpath work?

The PDM Fastpath is an investigative diagnostic designed to evaluate a client's practice and performance level of maturity in the PDM domain through a structured discovery process. The Fastpath offering utilizes a diagnostic tool that provides a method to quickly uncover, validate and qualify PDM opportunities. It gives the customer a framework to explore their product related business issues by gathering data to assess client PLM/PDM capabilities and needs in a robust and accelerated manner. The offering is design to be performed in a workshop environment that an IBM or certified Business Partner facilitator will conduct with members of your organization. The PDM Fastpath execution model is integrally woven into the logic of the diagnostic tool.

The PDM Fastpath leverages the same approach and intellectual capital of the IBM VPI PDM Assessment, differing primarily in the length of workshop engagement and solution specificity. The overall process consumes about twelve hours total and is conducted in five stages:

Diagnostic based…

The Fastpath offering leverages an easy to use questionnaire-based diagnostic tool. The diagnostic tool is formulated around the responses to two sets of questions. The first set of questions focuses on a company's infrastructure readiness to implement a product data management solution; the question categories consist of personnel availability, product and process alignment, technology availability and project planning. The second set of questions focus on the categories revolving around the technical capabilities of document management, lifecycle change management, product definition, workflow and collaboration.

Client Deliverables…

The Fastpath deliverables provide analytical feedback to the client relative to an IBM industry experiential baseline. Although the tool was originally conceived to provide recommendation guidance based on Dassault Systemes' SMARTEAM Suite R10 proposed product portfolio, the tool is not restricted in this manner. The Fastpath diagnostic approach is flexible enough that could be used as a cursory survey to distinguish simply whether your company should further investigate the need for a solution containing the attributes of a PDM solution. The consultative nature of the workshop feedback report has proved its value proposition extends beyond a product solution. In actual application during client trails both general and specific organizational, process and technology recommendations have been revealed that were well received by the client workshop participants and the executive management.

As a final output of the Fastpath process, a team of IBM and/or Business Partner facilitators develop an executive-level summary report which identifies the gap between the client responses to the nine questionnaire categories and IBM's industry baseline. In addition to the graphical plot depicted below, a summary of the significant workshop analysis findings, strategic and tactical recommendations and next step actions are presented to the executive management team for their review and evaluation on how to proceed. As an outcome of the process, the participants gain valuable insight on the potential benefits a product data management solution implementation might realize.

The Fastpath provides a mechanism to recognize Product Data Management as an asset…

Capturing and leveraging design knowledge within the digital product model in the form of both graphic and non-graphic electronic data can provide significant competitive advantage by accelerating design cycle times, reducing the cost of your design process, improving quality and enhancing innovation. The ability to gain access to sufficient levels of accurate data efficiently and effectively requires mechanisms that support real-time data management and exchange across the product value chain. Product data management and collaboration solutions can help integrate diverse systems among the internal and external constituents of your enterprise. The PDM Fastpath can help illuminate the benefits from a more robust PDM solution and provide a basis for return on investment.

Accelerate Cycle Times…

More and more industries are recognizing the final customer is the consumer. This realization is driving many companies towards shorter and shorter development lifecycles to respond efficiently and effectively to consumer wants and needs albeit your company may not be obtaining product requirements directly from the final consumer. Investing in rapid innovation deployment solutions throughout the internal and external value chain of a company is becoming an essential ingredient to survive in today's world of rapid response expectations.

Reduce Costs…

The integration of the creative design process with market planning, manufacturing and service can be extremely complicated. Integrating these processes with three-dimensional imaging tools and product data management functionality can reduce complexity. Increases in your company's productivity can be revealed throughout the product lifecycle value chain by providing a consistent set of tools, processes and methodologies to help your organization reduce redundancies as a result of leveraging knowledge and sharing data across the business in "easier to use" formats.

Improve Quality…

Poor customer satisfaction and declining market acceptance may reduce the demand of your company's products. New levels of design complexity, more rigorous government regulation and increasing expectations of your customers are requiring higher levels of product quality. Developing robust designs through enhanced design techniques, capturing of customer requirements and reusing best practices will help optimize product design.

Innovation…

Creating "right to market" products can enhance brand image and increase profit margins. Instituting a higher level of product development business maturity can potentially enable your company to offer more innovative products to the market. A sustained high-level of product development business maturity requires a company to excel in managing its organization, processes and technologies to meet its objectives. The companies that do this the best are typically able to capture more market share and charge a premium price at the onset of each of their product introductions.

Deployment Status…

The Fastpath offering was initially made available with the first version of the diagnostic tool in October 2002. An overview of the offering was presented at the October 2002 COE in the Americas and at the November 2002 ECF in Europe. The offering has been successfully beta tested by both IBM proxy and client trial cases in the Tier II Small Medium Business (SMB) environment in the automotive, aerospace, electronics and the fabrication and assembly industrial domains. IBM says the diagnostic tool was so well received in the trial cases that the tool will be translated for worldwide deployment in English, French, German, Italian and Japanese. IBM formally released the Fastpath offering in Europe during the fourth quarter of 2002 and is currently initiating its deployment in the Americas.

To understand more…

IBM and its Business Partners stand ready to assist. Certified Fastpath consultants that understand the product lifecycle issues at hand in your industry and the challenges involved in instituting product data management systems are available to assist in evaluating your needs. They would welcome the opportunity to conduct the Fastpath Diagnostic Offering with key personnel in your organization. Contact IBM or one of IBM's certified Business Partners if your company wants to assess its PLM opportunities by illuminating the benefits of a more robust PDM solution.

To learn more about how IBM can support your strategic product lifecycle management efforts browse through other resources designed for your business, visit IBM's Web site at: http://www-1.ibm.com/industries/plm/

For more detail Information about the discussion in this article…please feel to contact either of the developer/authors from IBM's Integrated Industrial Solutions Business Development team:

Brad Cabibi, IBM PDM Fastpath Offering Development Project Manager at cabibi@us.ibm.com or 561-447-7942.
James Malicki, IBM PDM Asset Development Manager at jmalicki@us.ibm.com or 561-862-3672.

SMARTEAM: The Solution of Choice for Specific Industry Solutions

SMARTEAM addresses a broad spectrum of industry-specific business needs, leveraging the experience of some 2,500 leading manufacturers to bring best-practice methodologies to business operations. Providing specialized solutions tailored to the unique needs of each industry segment, SMARTEAM optimizes core processes in product development, sourcing, manufacturing, sales, and maintenance.

The expertise of SMARTEAM field engineers and consultants has been systematically translated into templates and applications that efficiently address the specific requirements of typical industry roles. In conjunction with the entire IBM/DS product suite, SMARTEAM serves as the platform for comprehensive PLM solutions that give our customers competitive advantage.

In Fabrication and Assembly, SMARTEAM facilitates effective access to and reuse of product knowledge, executing workflows and managing project documentation to enable manufacturers to gain market share and increase profitability. In the increasingly complex and fast-paced machinery and mobile equipment market, SMARTEAM enables manufacturers to efficiently reuse their proprietary knowledge throughout the product lifecycle - from project specification through bidding and inventory management.

Industrial component and equipment manufacturers derive benefit from SMARTEAM by improving their responsiveness to customers, providing timely and efficient RFPs and order fulfillment that maximize market share. At the same time, enterprises that supply global markets through globally distributed design and manufacturing teams, such as styling and packaging-intensive manufacturers of toys, sporting goods, home and garden appliances, use SMARTEAM collaboration solutions to compress design and cycle times. All these best-practice processes enable manufacturers to react quickly to market changes and bring the right products to market at the right time.

In the Electrical and Electronics industry, SMARTEAM effectively manages the mix of mechanical, electronic and software components that typically coexist in today's complex product development environment. SMARTEAM helps Industrial OEM product manufacturers work closely with suppliers and customers to design and produce their Engineered to Order products, while SMARTEAM's multi-CAD and ERP integrations significantly reduce product turnaround time.

On the other end of the supply chain, electronics component producers use SMARTEAM data management, workflow and BOM management tools to win bids by meeting customer targets on price, function and availability. Producers of electronic consumer goods also take advantage of SMARTEAM Web collaboration tools to execute quick iterations and late-to-market design changes, to successfully bring innovative products to market.

Whether your primary need is asset management as a Process Industry manufacturer, or FDA Compliance in producing medical devices, SMARTEAM has the templates, processes and expertise to help you address your need effectively. Best practices for key issues such as collaborative product development, bidding processes, ECO management and product traceability play an important role in the product lifecycle across virtually all industries. With a combination of innovative technology and adaptability to broad industrial applications, SMARTEAM is the right choice for many companies' PLM solution strategy.

Dassault Systèmes Announces Two New CAA V5 Partner

Dassault Systemes recently announced two new CAA V5partners within the Software Community Program extending again the V5 PLM product portfolio.

Immersion Corporation, a leader in haptic technology and product, joined the V5 ecosystem last February as a CAA V5 Software partner. Immersion will develop and sell the suite VirtualHand® for V5, that enable CATIA and ENOVIA DMU V5 users to manipulate and feel a 3D digital mockup (DMU) in a natural way using their hands.

The world-leading provider of digital simulation software for prototype and manufacturing process engineering, ESI, will develop and sell as a CAA V5 Gold Software Partner its next generation solutions for Virtual Prototyping, Manufacturing and Environment using V5 middleware. As a result of this partnership, ESI Group will first focus on delivering within V5, multi-physics realistic simulation solutions for crashworthiness and stamping processes.